PITTSBURGH (AP) — Mike Tomlin started going down the checklist of the myriad ways Saquon Barkley can beat you. It took the Pittsburgh Steelers coach a while — by his usually measured standards anyway — to get to the end.
“He’s got top-end speed,” Tomlin said of the Philadelphia Eagles star and NFL’s leading rusher. “He can hit the home run … He’s good in tight spaces. He can get downhill. He can lower his pads. He’s got good lateral abilities. He can make people miss. He’s just a really complete player.”
So complete that Tomlin used the honorific “Mr. Barkley” when describing the challenge that awaits the first-place Steelers (10-3) when they visit the NFC East-leading Eagles (11-2) on Sunday.
“He’s been dominant,” Tomlin said. “Eye-opening at times.”
Physics defying, too. It’s one of the reasons Tomlin isn’t worried about his team getting too caught up in the big picture as Pittsburgh begins a stretch of three games in 11 days that starts with the Eagles, ends with Kansas City on Christmas and features a trip to AFC North rival Baltimore in between.
The way Tomlin figures, get caught looking down the road and you’ll likely just end up as another hapless victim on Barkley’s burgeoning highlight reel.
“If you don’t minimize him in some way, you’re not even going to position yourself to have a chance to be successful,” Tomlin said.
Most teams haven’t this season, though Pittsburgh and the NFL’s fourth-ranked rush defense believes it has the tools to be the exception. Tools like inside linebacker Elandon Roberts, who has carved out a niche as an old-school run stopper over the last decade, or “tooth chipper,” as Tomlin put it earlier this season.
Tomlin saw it nearly a decade ago when he was scouting Roberts out of Houston. There was something about Roberts’ willingness to stick his 6-foot-1 frame into uncomfortable places that stuck with Tomlin, so much so that when Roberts hit free agency in the spring of 2023, the Steelers practically sprinted to the bargaining table.
Roberts has been just as advertised, a veteran who welcomes the dirty work his job entails. Against Dallas earlier this season, that meant vaulting over the line of scrimmage to stop Cowboys running back Rico Dowdle in his tracks, leading to a fumble that could have sealed the game had Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott not fallen on it.
Asked what’s made him so effective through the years, Roberts shrugged.
“I just think when you’re good at something, you know, you hone in on it,” he said.
He’s hardly the only one on a defense that has slowed down Lamar Jackson, Derrick Henry, Nick Chubb and J.K. Dobbins among others this season.
Longtime defensive tackle Cam Heyward is playing some of the best football of his career at 35. Second-year defensive lineman Keeanu Benton is starting to come into his own. Patrick Queen, signed in the offseason to play alongside Roberts, is Pittsburgh’s best three-down linebacker since Ryan Shazier’s career ended with a spinal injury in December 2017.
Queen is well aware the Steelers will need all 11 players on the field — whomever it might be on a given down — to work in tandem to keep Barkley from taking over.
“Everybody’s got to do their job,” Queen said. “That’s really all it comes to. I think some teams are just unaware of how good Saquon is. You’ve got to keep your focus.”
And your head up.
Barkley’s reverse hurdle against Jacksonville earlier this season went viral, leading the makers of the “Madden NFL” video game series to incorporate it into an update the following week.
There’s one easy way — in theory — to stop Barkley from embarrassing you.
“If you want to hit somebody, you’ve got to see what you’re hitting,” Queen said.
Sometimes with Barkley, even that isn’t enough. While he plays behind one of the NFL’s best offensive lines and benefits from having a dual-threat quarterback in Jalen Hurts lining up next to him, there’s a reason he is, as Tomlin put it, “the most significant acquisition in the NFL in 2024.”
Barkley is threatening the single-season rushing record of 2,105 yards that Eric Dickerson set 40 years ago after arriving in free agency from the New York Giants. While Philadelphia’s passing offense is very much a work in progress — Hurts threw for just 108 yards last week against Carolina — Barkley has been the engine that’s driven the Eagles’ nine-game winning streak.
“For him to find a new team and get to that part in his career (and chase records), it’s something that you don’t see,” Queen said. “We’ve got to go up there and play physical football.”
Something that’s never been a problem for Roberts.
“I enjoy it,” he said. “I don’t know if you want a linebacker on your team that doesn’t like the physicality part.”
NOTES: WR George Pickens (hamstring) and S DeShon Elliott (hamstring) and DT Larry Ogunjobi (groin) did not practice Wednesday. … DT Montravius Adams (knee) was a full participant as he nears a return from a stint on injured reserve.
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Will Graves, The Associated Press
